Bulls must ‘get small things right’ to realise potential

THE CHIEF is back and with him comes a promise of better results, but it is how the Bulls play in New Zealand that will make or break their season.

Bulls captain Adriaan Strauss made a winning return to the team from injury as his team registered their first victory of the season against the Sunwolves last week at Loftus Versfeld. But that will prove insignificant if his team doesn’t kick on and manage to beat the Blues and Chiefs on their short but tough tour to New Zealand.

Strauss is likely to lead the team in their match against the Blues in Auckland on Saturday, taking the reins from Handre Pollard, who is struggling to regain his form after shoulder and ankle injuries kept him out of the game all of last year.

Former Springbok captain Strauss wants his team to focus only on the Blues and not think too far ahead about the rest of the tour. At the same time they need to fix the shortcomings that saw them lose to the Stormers and Cheetahs at the start of the season.

“It is true that this tour can make or break us, but we will have to take it week by week,” said Strauss. “You can’t at the beginning of the season look at the fixture list and choose which games you will do well in and which not. We will fight in every game and for every point. We let ourselves down in the first three matches of the season and we have a lot of work to do; we have to quickly rectify things. We did a lot of hard work in the pre-season and it is the small things that we must work on,” Strauss added.

But there were enough signs in the game against the Sunwolves to make Strauss confident that his team can come good and do so quickly, but it will require patience and religiously sticking to and executing their game-plan, given the intensity with which the New Zealand sides play.

“We showed in the game against the Sunwolves especially in the first half that we created a lot of pressure. We played a lot of rugby in their half, but we just couldn’t finish. We had a couple of lineout mauls that we needed to finish and when we got the turnover ball and got the line-breaks, we knocked on a few balls. So the plan is there... we just need to be more clinical and we need to build phases,” said Strauss.

On paper the Bulls have one of the best teams in the competition and they have a healthy balance of experience and talented youngsters.

Strauss sees the potential in his team, but concedes they have not played anywhere near their best.

“New Zealand are a rugby country and all of their unions play great rugby, so it is a challenge for us. We haven’t even touched on the way we want to play. But we are growing as a team and I believe we will get there. We are excited about being on tour, but we also know it is going to be tough.”